Time Warp
by hsm07
Summary: The past is meant to stay in the past. We're just not meant to know what happened. Well that's Troy's and Gabriella's job. They uncover the truth. They're the ones who serve out justice. They're murder detectives who stumble upon more than just a mystery.
1. Anywhere You Go, Anyone You Meet

**Author's Note--Yes, I know this is story suicide. Espeically since I've barely updated my one other story. Well...that story is slowly coming together next chapter, and this has been on my mind for a while now. Summer is coming up as I just have to make it through one week of exams and then I'm done. I realize that this story is a big risk for many reasons, one of them being because I got this idea from the book, In the Woods.  If you've never read it, you should. It's pretty good. So this story is kind of starting out like that, but the plot is going to be different when I post more chapters. Also, this is really different from the high school stories that I write since this story actually is based around their jobs. It might not be for some of my readers, but I can safely say that this is a troyella story. You don't have to worry about that. And one other thing, this is my first story that's in first person. I've tried writing like this before, but I find it much harder.**

**Please review and tell me what you think. I want the good and bad because I'm really unsure about this. I might post more, but I want to write out most of it before so that nothing gets screwed up.**

**Thanks.**

* * *

The world is full of deceitful, lying bastards. It's not said so specifically in my job description, but I like to think it is. My job is to point out who's lying, who's humoring me onto a wild goose chase, or who's just completely psycho that they actually are valuable. But then again, our world is a funny thing in which people thrive to survive. I guess some might say that that was what I had to do. I was the only one in my family who went to college. I was the only one to drop out. I'm not saying that was the proudest thing in my life, but it's a start.

My mother never did go to college as she became pregnant with me right during the middle of her senior year of high school. She grew up in a family who were well past being alcoholics and down right dickheads. They disowned my mother as having a baby in the family would cost even more money than buying liquor down at the local gas station of the small town. In ways, escaping her home town was the best thing that could have happened to my mother.

My father was never one for school. He knew from the day he could comprehend things that he wasn't going anywhere in the states, and was instead taking over his dad's company. My dad's side of the family weren't drunks, but they weren't angels either as they liked to kick back too every once in a while. Their living styles consisted of something along the lines of the 1950s where it was the women's job to make the food, while the husbands supplied it. My grandfather's company consisted of not needing to go to college due to my dad's knowledge of the ropes around the office and corporation by the time he was graduating from high school. He had worked there for four years during his teenage life and then gradually began to take over.

I don't know the gory details or anything, but somewhere in between my dad's family pressuring him to be perfect, and my mother's side of the family who didn't want anything to do with her, they had met up somewhere when they were both on vacation and conceived me. They stayed in contact saying it was 'true love' and soon after, my mother moved in with my father.

I am told that I had a great fifteen years of existence. I wouldn't know this personally, but when I see pictures--which isn't often--and when I see my grandparents from my dad's side they always tell me stories in hope of my memory coming back. It never does, however, as why would someone want to remember their parents' death? No one, that's who. I am just an average girl, so why would I be the exception?

"Just to let you know, there's no funny business on my squad. What I say goes, you hear?" The gruff voice of my new Chief said as his beady black eyes glanced over me in an unsure manner. I just gave him one of my sweetest smiles, however, as he had every right to be suspicious. I was a woman who was new to being a murder detective. I wasn't even thirty yet as I was two years shy of it, which also added to his suspicion of how I actually got put onto his team.

"No worries Cooper." My innocent looking eyes beamed up at him as he was a good ten inches taller than me, had broad shoulders like a big football player, and a strong build for someone who was nearing their late fifties. And although I could pull off the innocent little act of reassuring him that I meant no harm, I knew it wasn't true. How could I be innocent looking after I supposedly watched my parents being murdered?

I have been told that it was late at night when the police had found me outside one of the many entrances to a bike trail. My teeth were chattering as my lips were nearly blue from hypothermia. It was in the middle of winter as there was snow three feet high. Burlington, Wisconsin wasn't known for heavy winter storms, but it gradually fell and built up to the point where school was shut down for a day or two.

I don't remember why my parents and I were out near the bike trail that was the most common one around. It ran around a park that held the local soccer fields for competition, and circled around a man-made lake, only to be surrounded by trees and bushes so you were cut off from the small city life. On a clear summer day you could see past the tree trunks, and fallen leaves and right through to the traffic that was always coming and going--mostly going.

My clothes were nearly soaked through, probably from falling into snow due to shock, and a red sticky substance was crusting onto my dark blue jeans. The blood didn't belong to me as it also was on the inside of my jacket and my t-shirt.

Two bodies were found that day and a living corpse of a girl who couldn't talk without being scared of everyone near her. The first body was of a woman who looked as if she was just sleeping. The only difference was that she had bruises around her neck--most likely due to suffocation. The other body was of a man who was worst off from the woman. He had deep gashes in his abdomen with blood slowly closing off the wounds as his body drained out. His blood matched the blood on the girl's jacket and clothing.

It wasn't like I didn't want to talk or remember. I just couldn't as my grandparents were given custody of me. So many questions were left unanswered in the murder case, and I never spoke once. The police and detectives say that I was out with my parents back on the snowplowed trail, but I couldn't tell them the story of what happened after that. I don't remember seeing anything suspicious, I don't remember my father all of a sudden choking my mother and then killing himself--even though I know he didn't do that since the detectives ruled that out--and I don't remember anyone threatening my family before the attack.

Once the detectives started interviewing me day after day, they realized that I had nothing to say as I just sat there with wide glazed over eyes that were a lot bigger than they appeared. I don't remember their deaths, but I remember what happened afterwards at the funerals and countless questions being thrown my way. I didn't have amnesia of all things, however, as it was like I just blocked out that one day. I could still remember my mother baking me cookies when I was five, how my father came home late sometimes, and then the family dinners that we had with my grandparents every Sunday. But as time went on, and I forgot that horrible day even more, I soon started to forget myself as well. It was as if I was in a water color painting and someone added too much water. My memories started to blend together and I soon couldn't place how I reacted when my dad came home late, or what my mother cooked when the grandparents came over. I had forgot the little details about me, but not of my parents, and deep down, that bothered me.

Once my grandmother got so angry that she threw a glass vase at the wall. I still remember her sobbing, pleading with me to tell the nice detectives what had happened. I just took a step back and watched as my calm grandfather bowed down next to her shaking form, and wrapped his arms around her.

I wasn't sent away forcefully as I chose to leave this small town. My grandparents soon followed after I was sent to an all year school, only having a couple of weeks off throughout the year, but that was okay with me as for the first two years, I didn't even leave to visit my living family. They had moved out to California with me, only living two hours away, but what did I care? My grandmother could hardly look at me and my grandfather was busy trying to find some replacement for my dad at the company, even though my grandfather still owned mostly part of the company to bring in the money.

It was when my grandmother fell sick and had a heart attack that I cam home to visit. Although, I could hardly call their house in California home since I had never seen it before. She slowly passed away in the hospital, and there was nothing else we could have done. My grandfather should have been a mess, but he wasn't as he put on a brave face and gradually packed everything up in California to move back to Burlington, Wisconsin.

I had learned in a short amount of time that things happen for the hell of it. Life wasn't made for people to understand it right away, and some might never figure it out as it's a tricky thing wrapped around spider web after spider web of lies. You get caught up in one, and you'll never be able to leave it behind as you're stuck in the middle of it.

Year after year passed by me, and I never once looked back at my failed childhood. I don't know if I even tried to remember after the detectives stopped questioning me. It took them twenty months of trying to realize that I just couldn't remember a single thing. I could tell you their names, their births, and their childhood, but if you asked me about our past times together as a family, I simply drew a blank.

Instead of making myself go crazy in California, I studied my ass off while somehow making friends with one of the more well known girls of the school. My senior year I really started to live, and I liked it as that was the first time I let my guard down and actually experienced with things. It's still fresh in my memory as I can almost smell the bitter taste of my first cup of beer, or the puff of cigarette in my mouth. It burns unforgettably in my mind, as I much rather think of nicotine than my nameless childhood.

Somehow I had gotten into a good school for sociology and psychology, but I soon dropped out after three and a half years. I was so close to graduating that all it would take was another semester and some classes in the summer, and I would be done, but that was in the past, and I hate talking about my past.

I ended up working my way up to Murder as I had a knack for figuring things out. It's not because my parents' case went unsolved and that's my goal in life to find the killer. That's completely that opposite as there's just something about holding a gun and finding clues as to who might have done it.

I was led into an office that held about fifteen desks. Cooper was drinking stale coffee as I could already smell the blackness of it. Tired and eager eyes looked up once he stepped foot into the stuffy room with me following. I kept my head up, meeting every one of the pair of eyes looking at me. I was the only girl in the room, as surprisingly that didn't bother me. I was only hoping that my black suit pants and my white blouse with a matching blazer was on straight--not because I wanted to seduce anyone, but because I wanted to look professional.

The room was dark with a gloomy feel to it. Many men were at their desk, their feet up with their hands behind their heads; leaning back into their chairs with stubble on their chins. There were various other exits to the room as archways led into hallways where the interrogation rooms were, and then other rooms where specific cases could take over if they needed more room.

"Guys, this is Gabriella Montez. She's new to Murder." Cooper huffed out once again, and I had a feeling that he wasn't as excited as I was to be the first girl on his squad. I guess I would just have to prove myself, after all, he sort of knew me. He was one of the detectives who interrogated me one of the first nights my parents' bodies were found. I don't know if he still remembers due to me remembering him as a very young guy, so it's possible I just slipped his mind after all these years.

Just as I was able to sit down, I had already told Cooper that I didn't want to give a little speech about how grateful I am to be on his squad, my brown eyes caught onto a pair of blue eyes that were so powerful, I was nearly startled by the intensity. The eyes belonged to a man who I soon learned was called Troy Bolton. He had the tan, dark skin that looked like it took weeks of tanning to get. Chestnut brown hair with it swooping in front of his eyes. He looked young as he, like me, could pull off looking like their twenty instead of being in their thirties, of course, I still had two years until I actually did reach that age.

I remember on my first day that his eyes never left mine when I was assigned my desk. There were files on it already which I was supposed to go through, but nobody liked doing that. I couldn't wait for my first real case, but until then, this older guy who looked like a retired war veteran showed me the ropes of the office. I was naïve when it came to it as I thought he would only have to show me the ropes for a couple of days, a week tops, but instead he stuck to me like glue for a whole month. It was ridiculous in some senses as I knew how to work my way around in the office as this wasn't exactly my very first job, just my first time being in the Murder department.

I went about my business like any new person would have. I drank the bleak coffee that someone made every morning, I sat at my desk with one foot propped up on the chair that I rolled over from the desk that no one sat at near my own, and I went through report after report.

I remember it being a very rainy day. We seemed to get those quite often lately, although it never started off as rainy as the sun liked to deceive people. I got to work by my red jeep wrangler that was rusting at the sides. Although I hated the car with a passion, I just couldn't seem to get rid of it as it was a gift from one of my deranged Uncles who I had barely talked to in my life. But nonetheless, the car had grown on me, and although it wasn't the most professional car, I still drove it around.

The car liked to make a mockery of me, however, as the only problem that I was having with it that day was that there was no cover for it. So when the sun liked to disappear and rain started to pour down, I ended up getting soaked. That only happened once though as I was smart enough the second, third, and fourth time to stay late at the office, and to just wait out the storm. I could have asked almost anyone to give me a ride and they all would have offered, but I hated taking advantage of someone like that. I always felt like I owed them something, and that wasn't a feeling I wanted to feel.

I don't know what was different about that day. The sun had disappeared in late May and the rain had started. It was actually kind of chilly when the past week all the days had been in the eighties. I figured my giddiness and decision was based upon the conversation I just had with Cooper. He told me I was being assigned a partner in a couple of days. He didn't know who, and he didn't seem that happy about it, but he said the words that I was earning to hear ever since I joined the squad.

The rain was now falling on my head as I was trying to get my car to start. I had a feeling that it had something to do with the engine or the battery, or maybe even both as whenever something like this happened, I would just go to the mechanic, and have him fix it. I wouldn't listen that well as usually I have other important things to think about; like who was one of the main suspects in the case Gordon--the old war veteran--was working on.

I pulled my black leather jacket closer to my shivering body. It wasn't a thick leather jacket that cut off at the waist, as it was one of the thin jackets that went to at least my thighs. If I had to describe this jacket to anyone I would say that it's not one that you would see motorcycle people wearing, but one that Sarah Michelle Gellar has worn on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I didn't have an umbrella with me as I let the rain soak into my head as my body was pretty much drenched.

I wanted to scream so bad in frustration, but stopped as a car with very bright lights pulled over. The window rolled down as the windshield wipers on the red car was going crazy due to the rain.

I mustered a smile as I recognized the man in the car being Troy Bolton. His eyes appraised my wet figure before he raised an eye brow towards my car that was being stubborn. "You need some help?"

I smiled a real smile now as I put my hand up to my brow in a sailor salute to block the rain from landing in my eyes. "Thanks. If you wouldn't mind," I continued talking as he got out of the car, the rain instantly soaking his strong built figure. "I brought it into the mechanics just a week ago, but I have no idea what they did to it."

Troy popped the hood without even having to think about it. He glanced sideways at me as I came to stand by him. He looked like he was concentrating very hard as I watched his hands fiddle with a dirty looking knob. "So you don't even know what you paid him for?" I meekly shook my head no before I saw Troy roll his eyes and mutter, "Girls."

I just laughed it off as my grandpa always did warn me that I trusted some people too easily, and in my line of work, that was a bad thing. "I really do appreciate this. I don't know what I would have done if you didn't stop."

"Well I would have hoped that you would use common sense and go inside." He shut the hood of my car and wiped his semi dirty hands on his dark black sports jacket that didn't go with his suit at all. He cracked a smile, "But then again, I don't think someone would have just driven past you. You're pretty hard to miss."

"Why's that?"

He paused for a second with a smirk on his face. He walked over to the drivers side of my car and started the car after a second without any problem. "For one thing, a stranded woman in the rain who looks half as good as you would be the average guys dream, but you? You appeal to every guy out there."

I wondered for a moment if every guy out there meant him too, but I didn't ask it as I watched him walk over to his car. Before he could drive away something inside of me told me to stop him. After all, he did fix my car, but he never told me how.

"Hey Bolton?"

He looked up with a smile that said that he knew I was going to stop him. "Yeah Montez?"

"You never told me how you fixed my car." I looked briefly towards my beat up jeep wrangler.

Instead of answering me, however, he asked me a question instead. "Do you have a top for that car?"

My shoulders went up and down as the rain kept falling. I don't know if what Troy said was true or not as I didn't feel that hot in that moment. But then again, I bet Troy knew what he was talking about as he just had this aura around him that said he knew what was up with other people. He was good like that and it made me think to myself, 'why doesn't this guy have a permanent partner?'

He was good looking. Actually, he was better than good looking with his intense blue eyes, sandy brown hair that crossed just above his eye line, his muscles making up his arms filling out his suit nicely as if you took one look at him, you would think he wasn't a detective but an athlete or actor.

"Not really."

"Want a lift?"

Although my remaining family worked in Burlington and had spread throughout the Southeastern Wisconsin, and even though my work was stationed near Madison, Wisconsin, I lived in Milwaukee. I lived in the better part of the city in my own apartment flat.

Even though I was a girl, and you would think that I would take my time to decorate everything accordingly to color, I didn't really jump right into that. The color of the open walls were a light yellow that matched the dark cherry brown wood that outlined everything. I had big spacious windows that looked down into a mini courtyard that all tenants had. My sliding glass window opened to a little flat landing of a roof, so that if I wanted too, I could lay out there and look up at the stars.

I never really did get around to personalizing the place though as there were hardly any pictures.

Troy did a low whistle when he stepped foot into my apartment. Although my place was out of the way for him, he didn't turn down my dinner invitation. I figured making him whatever I could find for dinner would be enough payment for him fixing my car.

"Nice place." He looked around as I just smiled and continued into the kitchen that had all the essentials.

"Thanks. My grandpa got a good deal. He knows the owner." I opened the fridge and pulled out a beer for me. "Want one?"

I was expecting him to still be near the door, not right behind me. I nearly jumped when I felt his breath on the back of my neck. He took one step back with a crooked smile on his face and nodded. "Sounds good."

Troy walked along the edge of the counter, running his finger tips over the green and gray marble.

I had made dinner, Troy unexpectedly helping me with the pasta and simple sauce. It was going on midnight when we had finally decided to put everything away as our talking prolonged the task.

"So how did you get into Murder?" He asked me when rinsing off his hands and then drying them on the pale yellow towel.

I leaned back onto the counter before propping myself up so I could sit on it. "I applied and the Chief hired."

Troy chuckled at my naïve answer as I knew he was looking for more information than that. "Come on Montez, don't hold back. You and I are the only ones who are under thirty, so how'd you do it? I know the Chief doesn't have a wife, so…"

I mockingly rolled my eyes as I knew what he was suggesting. "I didn't sleep with him. And if I were you Mr. Bolton, then I'd be careful when saying those things. If the wrong person heard, that could be your's and their job."

He stepped closer to me and leaned against the counter space next to my leg. "Then what's your secret Montez?"

I smirked before leaning in and whispering in his ear, "I'm just that good." When I pulled back I laughed at his expression on his face. "What about you Bolton? What's your story?"

"That's a mystery wrapped inside a murder case," he joked with a chuckle, and I had a feeling he expected me to laugh too as that was work humor, but I just stared at him with wider eyes than usual. He must have got the feeling that he said something as he looked at me with concern. "Something wrong?"

I bit my lip. I suddenly realized that I would always be lying to Troy, deep down, no matter how far of friends we become, I would always be lying until I managed enough courage to tell him about my parents and my past. Although it technically wasn't lying if he didn't ask me directly, but I knew about my parents and he didn't, and in ways that upset me that I wouldn't always be able to tell Troy the truth when he asked about them.

"…no." I looked up at him with a small smile. "I was just thinking about what could possible be that bad in your past. Care to explain?"

Troy smiled, "If that means I stay here longer? Sure."

We were starting to become friends, and I liked it. Maybe a little too much.


	2. Remember That Your Eye Can be Your Enemy

**Author's Note--I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who took their time to even read this story. This is different for me and I appreciate those who read and took their time to review--even if it was just saying 'Good job'. Also, thank you to those who added it to alerts and their favorite story already. I don't know what to say other than, thank you.**

**Also, this chapter is on the short side for what I was hoping, but I wanted it to cut it off here instead of in the middle of a conversation next chapter. Hope you enjoy.**

Time is a funny thing. It always goes forward and never back. There is no way to beat time as time is always constant. I will never be able to figure out what drew me into Troy Bolton, and over time, it won't bother me. I will have learned to just go with the flow instead of trying to control it. After all, Troy did say that I had to loosen up sometimes.

For example, we fell into a routine. Whenever it would rain out, Troy would text me and offer me a ride. I would never deny it as I didn't like getting wet right before going into work. He would bring me home and we would eat dinner together or we would go out. One night, it just happened to be a Friday night so we didn't have to go into work the next morning, we went out to a bar. He got completely wasted and that was the first time I had seen him smashed to the point where he couldn't even walk. He kept saying how I needed to let my hair down--even though I wore my hair down nearly every day literally.

But other times, it was me who was the irresponsible one. He seemed to be the kind of person who liked to know the whole situation about certain things. Where as, when it came to me, sometimes I just shrugged things off, and I think that's the result of being at peace for not knowing my childhood like I should. It was as if my blocking of the memory trained me to be easy going in situations.

That was another funny thing time humored us with. It only took me a couple of months of being in routine with Troy that I felt comfortable enough to tell him about my past. We had been sitting in my apartment, me sitting cross legged on the couch with him taking up the other seventy-five percent of it; his feet resting in my lap as his back was against the other arm of the sofa.

We had just finished eating dinner, steak sandwiches, and were now each eating our own bowl of chocolate ice cream. A TV reality show was playing in the background, but I wasn't really paying attention like Troy. Although, deep down, I knew that he wasn't really paying attention that much either.

"Hey Troy?" I asked casually as he didn't even glance my way as he snorted; indicating that he was listening while his eyes were still watching the guy on the screen who was currently trying to fit through an odd shape in a moving wall.

He had asked me about my past before. I always brushed him off politely while making a sarcastic remark. For example, he would ask about where my parents lived and I would say something along the lines of, 'Trust me, you don't want to know'. He would get the point that I didn't want to talk about it, and that would be that. There was nothing else that he would need to know.

I looked at him as the ice cream in my bowl continued to melt while Troy's bowl was already empty with the spoon dangling out of it. "You still want to know where my parents are?"

His legs tensed as he slowly turned to look at me. The glow of the TV illuminating his face as his mouth stayed in a straight line. "That depends," he said slowly, "Are you going to tell me?"

I bit my bottom lip and nodded my head; putting my forgotten ice cream bowl on the ground to clean up later, or maybe if I got lucky, Troy would clean up my bowl as he cleaned up his.

I told him everything. He had some questions, and I answered them all the best I could. That doesn't mean that I gave him answers that didn't provoke more questions, as he seemed to come up with new questions after I would give him a response. But he took what he could get, and now whenever he did have a question, I would try my best to respond. But I couldn't tell him much as I hardly knew myself.

"Are you ever scared?" He asked when we were laying on the little flat roof to my apartment. The window was still open just incase one of our phones started going off so that we could hear them in the background.

I sat up on the hunches of my elbows and looked at him. "Scared of what?"

He smiled crookedly at me. "Scared that you'll remember."

He sounded so sure as I just giggled. I giggled because I was positively one hundred percent sure that I would never remember. It wasn't that I didn't want to remember, but it was that I never set aside specific times to try. I wasn't going to take out an hour of my day to sit at a desk to try to remember my past, and I shouldn't have too. If anything did strike up a memory in my mind, however, I wouldn't push it away as it would just be there. I would probably tell Troy and that's it as my grandfather wouldn't need to know I remembered something.

"Troy," I said after my laughing fit was over, "I'm nearly certain I'll never remember."

He looked at me with uncertainty in his eyes before chuckling himself. "You're probably right…Brie?" He repeated.

"Hmm?" I settled down in my spot again.

"You do know that if you do remember, that you can tell me, right?" His hand found mine and squeezed it with reassurance. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to never let go of the strength he was giving me; whether I knew it or not.

"You're getting mushy on me Bolton. If you do that now, how are we going to ask Chief to partner us together?" I joked.

He didn't seem bothered by my brush off of his question, but he didn't seem happy either. He just smirked my way before taking his hand back and pointing up at the sky. "I see the north star."

* * *

A couple of weeks after I told Troy about my past and parents, I was finally allowed to join him as a partner. It had taken the Chief some convincing as he had told me weeks ago that I could finally stop being under someone's wing. That had been the night Troy and I first really met, but it had taken him weeks to actually follow through with his promise. He didn't want to start me off on a huge case even though they were all pretty big given that we were investigating murder.

Now I had gotten the feeling that Chief didn't particularly like me, but I was wrong. Sure, he would make girly comments about how I should stop reading my Cosmo or something like that, but that was before I had seen him interact with Troy. I was a lot better off than Troy I had noticed right when we walked into his office.

It was tense when I was asked to shut the door behind myself. We had both stayed standing instead of one of us taking the only seat right across from the Cooper at his desk. He had looked up at us as if he was expecting us to admit to something we should have been guilty about.

He was reluctant at first because we were still both considered rookies. Troy was the new detective before me, but yet he had one of the best records. And well me? I just got done being a security cop, wearing the bright yellow and orange vests. You have to work your way up in Murder or any other high profile job, but somehow I managed to pull the right strings.

When we stepped out of his office I couldn't help the smile that made it's way onto my face. I looked over at Troy who had the same giddy expression on his face. We high-fived each other just like friends should.

"He must really dislike you," I commented as we both headed towards the small kitchen that was on our floor. That was where we got the bad, stale coffee from.

"Was it that obvious?" Troy chuckled as if he was remembering a good time.

"Kind of," I admitted as we passed some of our co-workers. A guy with dark caramel ringlets, a slight afro, greeted Troy by doing the 'guy' handshake. I knew this guy to be Chad Danforth. He was another guy who didn't work with a partner. He was the type of person who other partners picked to work with them if they needed a third person on the case. I had never really noticed Troy and Chad talk before, but then again, Chad had been gone a lot lately due to a different case that he just finished up.

"To us," Troy proposed after he got done pouring our coffees. He held up his cup in a toast, and I clinked mugs with him.

"To us," I agreed.

* * *

It's funny how guys always say that girls are the ones who gossip. Especially since guys are just as bad. Now that Troy and I were partners, the rumor mills were going crazy. I had never really paid that much attention to them since I really didn't care who was sleeping with who or who scored a ten on one of the guys Hot List. And I especially wasn't interested in the gossip when the guys in the office started rating me, and even though half of them had girlfriends, they still said they would have sex with me.

But now that Troy and I were partners, and I supposedly _cracked _down his barriers to a cold heart, we were big news. Apparently since Troy never had a partner before, and I was his first, that meant we were sleeping with each other. It was crazy how wild these rumors got. At one time in the day, I heard a set of partners, Jimmy and Danny talking about how I slipped something intro Troy's drink every time I got him coffee, and drugged him into sleeping with me.

I just looked up from my computer and gave them one of my sweetest smiles. They instantly got quiet and got back to work.

* * *

"You suck Bolton," I hissed into my ear piece.

I could just picture Troy smiling gleefully as only he could smile while shooting tiny men around the jungle. "You're going down Montez. I see you."

I was getting sick of his taunting and was almost ready to pull the plug on my computer. "I hate you so much."

I looked up and over at the desk next to mine. I had switched desks the day Troy and I had become partners. Now my desk was right next to his. He was smiling at me with that crooked smile that sometimes irritated me to death when at other times, it calmed me. We had a pretty good rhythm down as we spent so much time together that even I was starting to believe some of the rumors going around the office.

"Fu--"

"Bolton, Montez!" The Chief called out before I could continue my rude words. "Where is everyone? It's like a dead zone in here…no pun intended."

We both scrambled to quickly log out of the computer game room that we were in as I plastered on a sweet smile. The Chief glanced at me with a curious look on his rough face.

"You cold or something Montez? Maybe my office isn't as adequate as to what little girls want."

That was the Chief I knew; always making comments like that as Troy jumped in with a chuckle. "Don't worry Chief. Brie always wears that jacket when she's inside. She rarely takes it off."

I looked down at my leather jacket that was like a second skin to me. I felt good and comfortable in it as if I wasn't wearing it, then I would freeze. "Everybody's on break right now. It's kind of slow with the big cases."

"Now it's not. I have a case and since you two are the only two around who I can tolerate at the moment, I'm giving you first dibs. Want it?" It was as if he was dangling meat in front of a starving lions face. It was uncommon for the Chief to be so nice as Troy and I hadn't really had that big of cases before. Sure we've interrogated a lot of people, we have our whole system and procedures nailed down so that we always know what's going on with one another, but we've never really gone onto a high profile case where it's stumped us that bad.

I turned my head and looked at Troy who just shrugged. The Chief kinked an eye brow as he dangled the manila folder from his finger tips. "Bolton, who the hell wears the pants in this…" he looked for a word to fill in the blank as he was one of the people who thought we were sleeping together, but yet he wouldn't come right out to ask that since if we ever did admit to doing anything, we would be breaking rules. "…partnership?"

"We'll take the case Chief," Troy gritted out as I smiled triumphantly.

"Another storm? I'm surprised we haven't flooded over by now," I heard Chad complain as he walked into the office, just getting back from his break.

Usually Troy and I would have gone outside with them, gone off into our own little corner and smoked our own cigarettes, but sometimes when everyone decides to go outside, we stay inside. We play our own little games to pass the time. If we stayed serious and never let loose, then we would be complete total wrecks.

"Nice hair dude!" Troy called out.

Chad just flipped him off as I laughed at Troy's playful glare.

"Bolton! Montez!" Chief's door was open to his own private office. By now half of the guys were back inside and looking at us. They probably all expected us to be in trouble. "In my office. Now!"

This time around in Chief's office was different. Instead of standing tensely side by side, I opted to take the chair in the office across from his desk. My feet drawn up to my chest as I carelessly sat like I was still a kid. There was another desk in the room, pushed off to the side so Troy sat on the edge of that as the Chief just looked at us.

"I don't know how you two work," he mumbled as I looked behind me to see Troy smiling while trying to hold back a chuckle.

"Is that the file?" I asked once I turned back around.

"Unfortunately there's not that much to go on. Body was found this morning around five in the morning. We haven't had time to see if the body has been moved, but the location right now is Burlington, Wisconsin. A construction crew went to work this morning at five a.m. and found the body laying across a tree stump."

My heart instantly started racing once I heard what city it was in. I knew Troy was staring at me as now would be the time to deny the case. Of course the Chief would be asking a lot of questions and would be making a big deal out of us turning it down, but if we didn't turn it down then that could be our jobs. If the case took place on the same bike trail my parents' death happened on, then I'm not legally capable to work on the case due to the two cases might be linked together.

But what are the chances?

"Still up for it?" Cooper smirked at us, but then turned very serious as he saw the faces we were making.

I knew I looked unsure, but I quickly wiped my face clean as I only could hope that Troy did the same.

"Bolton. Montez," he warned.

"Yeah. We'll take it." I answered.

"Good," Cooper smiled. "I have an address for you, but not the name of the bike trail as it seems Burlington thinks they're too good to name the countless amounts of trails going through their city."

* * *

When I was little and scared of the monster underneath my bed, I would go out into the living room with the flashlight I kept on my side table. I would camp out in the middle of the room with all the lights turned on.

Now my dad was a heavy sleeper, but my mom could wake up from any little noise. I think it had something to do with how she was raised. Her family wasn't known for being quiet in the nighttime while they drank, so she rarely got a good night sleep.

She would wake up with me and follow me down the hallway. Without saying anything, she laid on the floor with me as she set her own flashlight down with a small smile. It was a reassuring smile that let me know silently that it was okay to be afraid.

That was when I was a kid. Now I'm an adult and I have to take care of my own fears by myself. Although I'm sure Troy would help me if I asked. However, secretly, I know he tries as he doesn't admit it out loud since I usually don't want help with things, but he cares, and that's all that matters when things go wrong.

* * *

"You okay?" He asked once I shut the door to the car. He didn't offer to let me drive as usually I beat him to the car and the drivers seat, but not this time as I mindlessly got into the vehicle with no protest.

"I'm fine. Let's just go."

"You know, this could get us into a lot of trouble if the Chief finds out that this could possibly be related to your case," Troy said casually as he reversed the car out of the parking space.

I looked at him carefully, "Do you think we should do it?"

"What are the chances that this case is related to the one that happened thirteen years ago? Anyways, if the Chief does find out, we'll handle it together." He reassured me.

His words did worry me a little bit though. There probably wasn't a connection since we didn't have a lot to go off of from my parents' case, but we probably would have to look into their file just in case. Although the cases might not be connected, we would link them together just so that we could have another perspective of this murder. We had to rule out all possibilities, and that would include going down into our office's dank and musty basement to pull out the box which held my old blood soaked jacket and jeans.

"If you're sure? I don't want the Chief to punish you for something that I should tell him." I mumbled as I finally looked back up at him.

Troy smiled as he glanced my way briefly. "We're partners. We finish cases together. We interrogate together. We go down swinging together."

* * *

The wind sounded like someone was whistling as the trees swayed outside the car. I bent my head a little to see through the windshield and saw the sky in a mixture of gray and blue. The sun was just starting to show itself as Troy parked his car between two trucks that had mud coating them very thickly. I was just glad that I didn't bring my jeep wrangler or else I had a feeling that the inside of it would have gotten muddy somehow.

"So this is it?" Troy finally asked as he killed the engine.

I looked around as I hadn't been back to this spot in nearly thirteen and a half years. The trees were thinning, but not enough where there was a clear sight to the trail wrapping around the lake which was turning colder and colder each passing November day. Soon enough, it would all be ice as Troy and I were at least lucky Burlington didn't have a light snow storm or rain storm. When I told Troy this, he just looked at me funny.

"What?"

"A snow storm?" He repeated with a kinked eye brow.

"Hey, I lived here when it even snowed in October. It's not a big storm, but it's nearly cold enough to freeze over," I pointed out as I nodded to the indoor temperature that his car had above the rear view mirror. It was only 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

"So…do you reckon they moved the body?" Troy asked me, and somewhere that question must have registered in my mind, but I never did give a proper answer as a sign caught my eye.

It was just an ordinary sign which was green with white lettering. It gave the rules of the bike trail; the rules saying how if you had a dog, put it on the leash and so on…

My eyes squinted, and in the back of my mind, I was sure that I had a little knit near the center of my forehead--I only knew this because Troy pointed it out to me every time he thought I was thinking too hard--, but something else registered in my mind.

That sign was new.

I sighed as I gave a small smile towards Troy while unbuckling myself.

"What the hell was that?" He asked while putting his hand over mine to stop my actions of getting out of the car.

"Nothing," I lied as even though I noticed the sign was new, almost anyone could have pointed that out as it didn't blend in with the other run down signs hanging on the bathroom stalls.

"Now tell me the truth," he persisted sternly. His fingers ran over my wrist one more time before he pulled back and unbuckled himself.

"I just…the sign is new. There wasn't one here before." I quickly got out of the car, hoping that I looked at least a little casual.

Troy was just as quick though and met me at the front of the car. We were in a little parking lot right before the trail actually started. I could faintly hear peoples' voices in the background as I could already point out two cars that I recognized and a van. Our crime scene tech was here with her crew: Sharpay Evans and her minions.

"You remembered something?" He asked with excitement coating his voice. He sounded and looked a lot more happy than me at the moment. If anything, I was a little freaked out as it was finally sinking in that I was going back to the place where I supposedly witnessed my parents' murder. For all I knew, I could be walking on their crime scene spot within minutes.

"…yeah. I guess I did," I mumbled as his hands grasped onto my small arms and shook me a little with excitement.

"Brie, that's great! Aren't you happy?" He exclaimed in a quiet voice so that we were still the only two to hear.

"Can we talk about this later? Because if we weren't on this case, then yeah, this would be a good thing, but since we're on a case which could on the slight chance be related back thirteen years, it's probably not a good thing. The more I remember, the more fucked you and me are." I said.

His hands dropped again and his smile wavered. "But if you remember more things, then that could point us in the right direction."

He was right. If I remembered more, then that could point us in the right direction, but then how would we explain ourselves in the paperwork we had to file. We wouldn't be able to unless we told them that the girl who was found thirteen years ago finally remembered what happened, and then that would really get us into trouble where we could possibly get suspended, separated, or fired.

It may seem selfish, but I was kind of hoping that I wouldn't remember anything, so that way, we only had the evidence in this crime scene to work with, and not the second crime scene from the past. That way, Cooper wouldn't be able to connect the dots.

"Let's go partner. It's cold out, and I have a feeling it's only going to get colder. Plus, Sharpay's here, and it's only a matter of time before the reporters get here," I said hoping Troy would just drop the subject.

He ran his fingers through his untidy hair before giving me a crooked smile. "Let's do this. Together."

* * *

**I'm still nervous while posting chapters as this story is SO SO SO new to me. Tell me what you think. The good and the bad please.**

* * *


	3. I Said Hell is so Close

It was as if I was walking through a scene from Law and Order. Where everyone was hustling and bustling around you, as you take your time to make your way over to the crime scene; knowing that a body was waiting for you. Troy and I didn't know if there was a baby, a kid, or a full grown adult waiting for us, but whoever it was, shivers went up my spine.

"Sharpay probably isn't done with the crime scene yet. We should probably split up after we find the person in charge here," Troy murmured just as a guy who was wearing a yellow hard hat started making his way towards us.

He was wearing a shirt with the sleeves ripped off, blue jeans that had a hole in the knee, and he already smelled of sweat and outdoors. "Can I help you?" He gruffly asked as just passed us--thirty feet away--at least twenty other guys sat and five girls.

Troy took out his badge with a smile. "Hi. I'm Detective Bolton, and my this is my partner Montez. We're the people assigned to this case. Are you in charge here?"

Troy had such a professional aura to him that the man in front of us stuttered for a moment before clearing his throat and holding out his dirt covered hand for us to shake. I smile as my hand connected with his; briefly seeing out of the corner of my eye Troy wiping his hand off on the outside of his jacket.

"I'm in charge here. The name's Jerry." He looked to be about in his mid forties, his skin tan from being outside, but slowly fading as the days got colder and the sun didn't shine as much. "How can I help you?"

To me it seemed as if Troy probably had enough of this guy. He always wanted to jump right into the case before we even received all of our information.

"We appreciate the cooperation Jerry. Bolton and I just need to know the basic information for now, then we'll set up a section out here so that we can start to interview your crew, and after that, then we'll let you know what's happening. How does that sound?" I asked in my best nurturing voice. I found out the easy way that when I talk nice and smooth with some of the potential suspects, they warmed up to me real nicely.

I could practically see Troy roll his eyes as Jerry nodded almost too eagerly. It probably wasn't very often that he saw a woman in her late twenties come through these woods.

"So let's start with who found the body exactly?" Troy cut in before I could ask the same question. I glanced at him for a second and saw that he just sent a wink my way.

"Every morning I send two of my crew members to go get coffee. The quickest way of doing that is to actually take the bike trail half way around the park and then cutting through the second parking lot to reach the coffee house. So today it was Sara and Rick's turn to go. They were the ones who found the body," Jerry motioned behind himself as I had to push myself off the ground a little bit to see over his shoulder. "The woman with red hair, and the guy who's wearing the red t-shirt with the white splotches covering the front."

They looked just like average people, and unfortunately that's how these cases go. Normal people find the bodies, normal people get dragged into the case, and normal people never forget. It happens all the time.

Troy and I looked at each other as that was all we needed to know for now. Later, we will come back and interview them, making sure that nothing sounded too fishy.

"So Jerry, this is another part where we need your help," Troy started as he just loved taking the lead before I even had time to register what was happening. "We're gonna need someone to show Montez around the site. All the places that you guys have been working on, while I'm going to go to the scene of the crime. Okay?" Even though Troy asked if it was okay, he wasn't really asking for Jerry's approval.

I was silently thankful deep down as seeing the body so soon was not something I was looking forward to seeing. Who knows what kind of memories that would dig up inside of me, and Troy sensing the hesitation took charge and offered to do the job while I was led around like some lost kid.

"Oh…sure thing. I can get…" Jerry looked around and finally he called over to a group of guys all kicking around a rock to entertain themselves, "Scott! Come here."

A guy who was wearing faded blue jeans with dirt smudged near the bottom, a white t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, and a nice tan from being out in the sun stood up. He had a kind smile on his face as he approached us. He looked to be about mine and Troy's age, if not a little younger.

"This is Scott," Jerry said. "Scott, this is Detective Montez and Bolton."

"Gabriella," I corrected as I knew Troy rolled his eyes at how easy I let people call me by my first name.

"I need you to show Montez around the site. Every space you can think of, I need you to show her." Troy gave directions while eyeing Scott over as if he wasn't a good candidate to lead me around.

Troy and I broke apart after that as he went to go see the crime scene and I went with Scott. Although it was fairly easy to see that Scott and Troy were not buddy-buddy with one another as their personalities seemed to clash right away.

"You might want to chage your shoes into work boots," Scott called out to Troy's retreating back. Troy turned around and his blue eyes that I were so used too, turned even darker. "There's mud everywhere."

I had once grown up on this bike trail--playing hide and go seek with my friends, walking with my mom and dad, and camping out occasionally on a warm summer night. I knew that if the body wasn't directly on the path, then Troy would have to go into the woods and trees and that it would be muddy. Scott was only warning him.

"I think I'll manage," Troy said tensely.

"He seems…_strict_," Scott commented when he looked back to me and Troy was out of sight.

"Nah." I shrugged my shoulders. "He just gets cranky sometimes."

"Right," Scott smiled, "You ready? You want some boots?"

After receiving boots from Scott, although they were a little big so I had to tie the laces tighter so they wouldn't fall off, he was showing me around the trail. The trees had thinned out, there were random ditches around from the digging that was happening, and the lake looked dirtier than ever. I realized that a lot had changed since the last time I could remember, and for some reason, that bothered me.

"So what's with all the construction?" I asked as it seemed Scott was leading me around the whole lake, which wasn't that far. The lake was only about a mile or two around. Although the path was longer as it had various forks, we mainly stuck to the path that was near the water's edge.

"We're moving the path," he scoffed. "I think it's the stupidest decision and project that we've worked on, but hey? It's work, right? Somehow I have to bring in the money."

Scott seemed like an easy going guy, but once he started talking about doing the actual construction on this bike trail, a different mood took over. He didn't seem that happy about it.

"Why would anyone want to move this bike path? It's been here for a while, hasn't it?"

One side of Scott's mouth hooked upwards in a half smile, but then soon faded as he stopped walking and peered across the lake, eyes landing directly on the yellow bulldozers that Troy and I passed to meet Jerry for the first time.

"The bike trail has been here for a little over a hundred years. It's part of the historic part of this town." I looked up at Scott as he talked. He looked so serious to the point where I barely recognized him as the guy who came over to me smiling. "There's a lot of politics involved in this bike path, I guess. Something to do with the mayor of Burlington, and the two senates of Wisconsin. I don't know the whole story, but they want the bike trail moved and there's a whole lot of people against them now. I think they're calling themselves the Ecosystem Development Committee."

"There's people protesting?!" I nearly exclaimed as if the people protesting didn't already have a bad enough name, this just made the case a whole lot messier.

"Yup. It makes our job a hell of a lot harder. Not that I'm saying I support this destruction, because I think I probably would be one of the protesters if I wasn't on Jerry's crew." Scott clarified.

Just then my pager went off, and I looked down to turn off the beeping. I smiled before glancing up at Jerry. "I think we should head back. I've seen just about enough of this site."

* * *

Sharpay was an average height woman who stood at five foot four, had blonde hair that always seemed to bounce perfectly with every step she took, and had perfectly manicured nails. You would never expect her to be a Crime Scene Tech with one glance at her choice of shoes. Sharpay is just like our Chief Cooper except she doesn't interrogate people while trying to find the murderer. Instead, she and her team go to the scene, process the scene, collect the evidence, and then Troy and I report back to Sharpay to figure out if we have a lead.

She seems to like Troy and I because every once in a while when Troy and I are tight on time, we offer to take her to dinner as friends and she'll bump our case in front of someone else's. We have never actually taken her out yet, but we've all been busy. Unfortunately our jobs require a lot of time.

"Jesus fuck…" I muttered as my eyes went wide for a second. I could never forget the first dead body I saw--apart from my parents who I don't remember--but each and every time I see a new body, it seems to get worse and worse.

I was expecting a woman. I don't really know why, but I just always got a feeling when it was a female Troy and I were investigating, but I wasn't expecting a kid. A kid who didn't look more than thirteen years old. She was still a girl who dressed all innocent and naïve--as if nothing in the world would hurt her. She had dirty blonde hair, really thin looking, and it was long to the point where it passed her shoulders. She looked to be about twelve; just hitting puberty as her chest was pretty flat; just starting to grow. Her torso was long, along with her legs as she looked to be light weight.

"She looks as if she could be sleeping," a voice said from behind me and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Troy! Don't' do that," I chided as he took a step forward to be right next to me.

"She looks peaceful," he murmured as I knew that these kind of cases hit him pretty hard. Although it was always difficult to see someone so young being killed, each and every detective had a specific kind of case that hit really hard. For Troy, it was kids being killed, and for me? I always found the rape cases hard to deal with.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Except for all the blood near the back of her head."

"I believe that's from being hit in the head with this rock," another voice spoke up. It was unusual for Sharpay to sound kind of mousy and shy, but she knew that Troy didn't take children's deaths lightly.

"I don't know why the killer would leave behind his weapon, and I'll have to take it in for a DNA match up to the girl's blood, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that the killer struck her in the back of the head a couple of times." Sharpay clarified.

Yellow tape was being hung everywhere so that no one would step into the crime scene while I knew that it was just a matter of time before people started to come to see why there were weird cars and vans coming to the construction site. Chief would not be happy if he found out Troy and I got caught up in all the publicity. We were not allowed to talk to the press.

"Any finger prints?" I asked as I noticed that Troy couldn't stop looking down at the girl. I put my hand on his shoulder and gently shook him out of his trance. He glanced at me and that was the first time in seeing him after being separated for thirty minutes that I noticed his black shoes and good suit pants had a brown crust forming on them from the mud. "Nice shoes."

He cracked a smile. "I'll clean them later."

"Three different finger prints. I'll run them through the computer to see if I can get any matches, but I'm pretty sure that at least one of them belongs to the person who found her and decided to touch her to see if she was still breathing. I hate the ones who move the body to check for a pulse," Sharpay muttered. "I understand checking her pulse on her wrist, but to actually shake the body when it's cold." She rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Whoever found her was probably just shocked," Troy said calmly.

"Either way, I still have two other different fingerprints, but I'm betting if the mother or father did the laundry, then that will eliminate another fingerprint, and we'll be left with one other."

"The killer's?" I asked although I knew the answer.

"That's what I'm hoping for."

Troy and I left the crime scene before anyone else could get there. We had to leave to let Sharpay and her team finish up. Then we would go back and talk to the construction workers, hopefully question the two people who found the girl even more. I knew something was wrong with Troy the moment he didn't even try to beat me to the car so that he could drive.

"What's up Bolton? Talk to me."

"Have you ever noticed that the crime rate around us is not slowing down? I feel as if we're just sitting around and doing nothing to help others. Sure, we bring other people to justice, but what does that teach them? We can't catch all the bad guys, and then they just get away with it."

I pulled into the closest gas station and parked the car. This place would just have to due for coffee and a little lunch break. If not, I'm sure I remember a fast food restaurant in town that we could go to.

"I think we're making a difference," I murmured. The sun outside casting through the windows made Troy's skin glow even more, no matter how upset he was. "We're catching the guilty people and putting them away so that they won't kill again. It's worth it Troy."

"But what's the point in doing this if we can only catch them after they commit the crime and not before? People will always die--"

"Exactly. People will always die." I looked Troy square in the eye as neither one of us blinked. "We can't stop the circle of life, and as much as I hate this, people are just like animals and we kill. You and me can only hope to catch the bastards."

We were silent for a moment before a car that parked next to us beeped as the owner swiftly walked into the gas station.

I smiled. "Now I'm going to go in there and get us two disgusting cups of coffee and sandwiches for lunch. 'Kay?"

"Yeah," Troy nodded as his eyes still looked a little dazed. "Thanks."

"Sure thing."

After I found a sandwich that didn't look as if it was in the store for more than a decade, I paid for the coffees and food before making my way out to Troy; except he wasn't where I last left him.

"Brie?" His voice called out from around the corner of the stone building. I followed and saw him sitting on an old looking bench that was pushed up against the brick wall as a back rest.

"I got you a ham sandwich." I tossed it to him as he smiled his thanks. After we both started taking small bites of our food, I realized I should have got bags of chips or something other than just two pieces of bread with meat in between. This wasn't the most ideal lunch as I was pretty sure that in all my teenage life of living in Burlington, I actually never did eat at this particular gas station.

"I suppose we should talk about who could have killed this girl. Cooper will want suspects for the press," Troy said with a heavy sigh. He put his ham sandwich aside and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

I looked at him with my own distress. "There's always the family…whoever that is."

"We'll have to call missing persons when we get to the site. This girl can't be nameless," Troy noted.

"Then if it wasn't the family," which it usually is someone in the family since the victims almost always trust them with their lives literally, "then it could have been someone who knew the family?"

Troy looked at me now as the wind picked up some. I snuggled deeper into my leather coat; trying hard to distract myself away from his intense blue eyes. "Brie…it could have been the killer from thirteen years ago."

I thought about it for a moment. He was right, but my other two suggestions were most likely because if Troy was right, then it just wouldn't make sense if the killer turned up all of a sudden after thirteen years of laying low. He sure would have a strange killing pattern, but I refused to think any further into it.

"Also, we have to think politically."

Troy dug into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette pack, offering me one which I took gratefully. Troy lit his first and then lit mine as it dangled out of my mouth.

"Politically?" Troy coked an eye brow, and it took me a moment to realize that I was just staring at is flawless face.

"Right," I confirmed. "Scott said that a committee was being formed to stop the construction from happening."

"Hasn't it already started?"

"Not fully. Scott said that Jerry and his crew had all their equipment down there and ready to start, but they were delayed due to the gas pipes below the ground that they didn't know about. It was lucky that they didn't strike a pipe or else it could have been pretty bad, but now that their ready to start, a body shows up and their set off coarse once again."

"So you think this 'committee' is doing this? Purposely killing an innocent little girl?" Troy sounded almost mad as I glanced at him, but quickly looked away.

"No. I don't think so, but we can't rule that option out. Someone is bound to think that though and print a story through the newspaper. We just have to inform the Chief of this information."

We were silent for a moment before I felt Troy move besides me. "Are you ready to go back?"

I looked down at both of our half eaten lunches. "…Yeah. This food sucks anyways."

* * *

Troy pulled into his previous parking spot near the bike trail twenty minutes after eating. Sharpay's van was still here, meaning that we couldn't start interviewing the workers until she was done so that we had at least one thing to lead off of.

"Want to make the call?" Troy asked and I looked at him. He sighed as he held his cell phone in his hand, the number already dialed in.

"Not really," I admitted, although if he really wanted me to, then I would. He was my partner, and I would do anything for him.

He forced a smile on his face as he was easy to read at times, when in other situations, he was the hardest person I knew. "You owe me Montez."

I was going to say something, anything to sound clever, but I realized I couldn't as Troy was already greeting the other person on the other line. I looked around, and a smile crossed my face as I looked straight ahead.

It was easy getting out of the car as Troy was busy on the phone, so he really didn't care that I was leaving him for five minutes. I walked over to Scott who was sitting on the edge of a truck bed.

"Hey," he smiled like we were long term friends.

"Hey."

"Any leads?" He asked with a happy tone. I looked at him and couldn't help but smile no matter what my mood was. Working in Murder took a lot out of a person as it was stressful to think of animals who could be capable of killing another human being.

Scott seemed just like the kind of person who was always in a good mood, and that was something I could use.

"If you count grabbing lunch at the nearest gas station a lead," I teased.

"Well you will soon I bet Gabriella. After the Crime Scene Tech and her crew leaves then you can really start."

I nearly whipped my head up to look at him in surprise. How did he know the specific role Sharpay played? How did he know that Troy and I haven't really started?

"What?" He asked innocently, and if I didn't know any better, there was a teasing smirk on his face.

"I'm sorry, but…are you familiar with crime scene investigations?" I didn't want to seem rude, but not once in working with Murder have I run across someone who was familiar with the process, but yet they had no police background.

"I might." He scratched the back of his neck in a sheepish kind of manner. "You actually might know my dad. Chief Cooper?"

I was surprised before, but now I was literally ready to go into a cardiac arrest. "Chief Cooper is your dad? You're his son!"

"On good days I am," Scott joked right before I heard a car door slam behind me, and I knew that it was Troy.

"Troy, guess who Scott is related too?" I didn't wait for Troy to answer as he stood next to me and nearly sent daggers Scott's way. I was too shocked to realize what that meant at the time. "He's Cooper's son."

"No way," Troy didn't sound enthusiastic. "Brie, we have an I.D and the families address. You ready to take off?"

I looked from Scott to Troy; not sensing the tension coming from both of the guys. "Yeah. We'll see you later this afternoon Scott."

"Have a good day Gabriella. And Troy," he added.

When Troy and I were both in the car, Troy zoomed out of the parking lot.

"I can't believe we met Cooper's kid. He looks to be about our age." I said with wonder in my voice. I don't know why that amazed me as we all knew Cooper had a kid, we just didn't know who he/she was…until now.

Troy grunted with an eye roll. "It's amazing."

"You're using your sarcastic tone. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Troy said dismissively. "Scott just seems like the screw up kind. I don't know why you're so excited about meeting him. He's not like boyfriend material or anything."

I looked at Troy with narrowed eyes. We were so comfortable around each other that we usually could talk about our relationship status and our previous girlfriends and boyfriends, but there was something within Troy's tone that told me that he was very upset about this.

"I never said I wanted to _date_ Scott. I just…yeah, he's good looking I suppose, but I can't date him because he's as of right now, a suspect along with the rest of the construction crew."

"And if he wasn't apart of the crime? Would you date him then?" Troy asked quickly as I swore the car picked up in speed, which was saying a lot since we were in Burlington and you really couldn't speed.

"What's with the twenty questions. All I said was that he was nice and it's cool that we met Cooper's son. No big deal. I also said that I thought your mother and father were nice, does that mean I want to date them too? Huh?" I retorted as I crossed my arms over my chest like a little five year old pouting.

Troy sighed after a while and pulled up to the house that I guessed was the unsuspecting families. "I'm just in a bad mood Brie. You know how I get when it comes to kids' cases. Can we forget about Scott for now?"

I smiled at Troy. I understood perfectly why he was upset. Kids' cases were just not his thing. "We're partners. Of course we can forget him."


End file.
